by Worth, Dan
Chen was leading the remains of the force that she had taken to Santiago, the remaining ships of the Pericles group having been distributed amongst the other carrier groups. It was a large force, and Admiral Cartwright still commanded a similarly sized fleet. His command had been swelled still further with the addition of the Nemesis strategic missile destroyers hidden in the midst of the other ships to try and disguise their engine signatures amidst the turbulence caused by the escorting vessels. Nevertheless, Chen had severe doubts about whether it would be enough. They were potentially facing thousands of enslaved enemy ships of unknown capability in addition to an ever-fluctuating number of Shaper ships and that massive super-capital ship itself, whose capabilities could only be guessed at. Anti-matter tipped missiles or no, she did not fancy their chances. She had begged Cartwright for AM warheads to arm her own tactical missile frigates, but was told that the entire stock of available warheads was now aboard the Nemesis vessels. There had still been no confirmation from the Nahabe about whether they were preparing to commit forces.
As a young cadet, Chen had often pictured some heroic final battle with her delivering a rousing speech beforehand, but neither she nor Cartwright had felt moved to do so this time. She had simply wished her crews the best of luck, and had told them what an honour it had been to serve with them. They were going to their deaths, they knew that. She owed it to them not to lie to them. She knew that she could rely upon them to do their jobs, right up until the end came.
Having left their rendezvous, Chen and Cartwright’s fleets had taken diverging courses and were now approaching the Achernar system from opposite directions. The remaining Nahabe ships of the Order of Void Hunters were approaching from a third direction. They would arrive ahead of the two Commonwealth fleets, ready to scout the system before de-cloaking and pouncing upon the enemy.
‘Ten seconds!’ cried O’Rourke.
‘Stand by, everyone,’ said Chen. ‘Mr.McManus?’
‘All stations reporting in, ma’am,’ McManus replied. ‘Weapons and shields ready. All fighter and bomber wings reporting ready.’
‘All ships reporting in,’ said Andrews. ‘In addition, I’ve prepared the coded signal that you requested sent over secure channels. It will broadcast as soon as we emerge from hyperspace.’
‘Good,’ said Chen. ‘Now let’s give these bastards what they deserve.’
The Churchill and her fleet exited the jump, and the Achernar system blinked into view outside the bridge windows. The moon of Orinoco hung serenely in space in front of them, fifty thousand kilometres distant, the mottled blues and greens of its seas and continents swirled with clouds. Then they saw the ship. The great Shaper vessel lay in orbit, a tiny speck next to the vastness of the moon behind it, but the fact that they could see it at all from this distance betrayed its size: it was indeed truly enormous. The ship’s cameras gave them a closer view. Light flooded from the bows of the massive craft as yet more vessels emerged from the ring that it held tightly in its grasp to join the hundreds already within the system. They could see them with the naked eye as points of light that moved against the fixed stars in huge shoals. Those vast alien fleets had been lying in wait for the Commonwealth ships to emerge from hyperspace, patiently tracking their warp signatures as they had approached over billions of kilometres of space. Their shields were raised and their weapons primed and ready to strike. Only the exact point of Chen’s fleet’s emergence from hyperspace was in any way unpredictable, her course had otherwise been exactly plotted. Now those waiting ships moved in.
‘Contacts!’ cried Singh. ‘Over fifteen hundred vessels detected within one hundred thousand kilometres of the moon. Over one hundred Shaper vessels of varying classes are amongst them, the remainder are largely alien vessels of unknown types, though sizes indicate capital ships and I can spot a number of former Commonwealth ships. Around one hundred and fifty vessels are heading towards us in formation, led by thirty two Shaper destroyers. The rest appear to be lying in wait for Cartwright’s fleet, as though they know that he represents the greater threat.’
‘They aren’t splitting their forces to any significant degree,’ said Chen.
‘No ma’am,’ Singh replied.
‘Alright let’s do this, put me through to the fleet, Andrews.’ Andrews did as she was ordered and Chen continued. ‘All vessels, prepare to fire at will on my command. Use spatial distortion weapons on the Shaper ships. Helm, lay in new jump co-ordinates and relay to all ships. We need to emerge two hundred thousand kilometres above the moon’s northern pole.’
‘Aye,’ replied Goldstein and got to work.
‘All ships, prepare to jump on my command.’
‘Admiral, the Shaper vessels are projecting drive inhibitor fields,’ said Singh.
‘Does the depth of those fields exceed the range of our primary weapons?’ said Chen
‘The larger cannons have an effective range of two hundred kilometres, or thereabouts, the smaller ones less than one-fifty. Those fields are just under a hundred kilometres deep.’
‘Gonna be close,’ said McManus, watching the enemy vessels close in. ‘You going to kick them in the balls and run away before they can catch us?’
‘It ought to get their attention,’ Chen replied, her gaze fixed on the approaching ships. They were only a few thousand kilometres away now and accelerating hard. ‘All ships stand by and prepare to fire,’ she said.
She could see them clearly now in her HUD view from the ship’s cameras, the predatory forms of the Shaper craft leading the lumbering enslaved vessels that came behind them, a motley assortment of different hull shapes and colourations.
Only a few hundred kilometres now. Three hundred. Two hundred.
‘FIRE!’ yelled Chen, gripping her chair arms and lifting herself half out of her seat and the deck shuddered beneath her as her crew complied.
The Shaper vessels leading the charge took the brunt of the initial volley from the seven carriers, as it shattered their gorgeous hulls and sent them spinning. The volley from the destroyers, a split second later, hammered in to the ships behind them, badly wounding a handful more and tearing open a couple of the enslaved vessels that had strayed into the crossfire. The remaining Shaper vessels were still closing in and reaching out with grasping inhibitor fields, trying to grab the Commonwealth ships and prevent them from jumping
‘Jump!’ commanded Chen, and the charging enemy vessels along with everything else winked out of view.
‘That’s it, that’s the signal!’ yelled Steven, and jumping up from the secure comm., grabbed the rail rifle from where he had left it on the steel desk beside the unit and marched through into the hangar, clad in the light combat armour that he had acquired from the Hidden Hand’s stores. The light armour was brand new, never been worn. Steven wondered briefly where it had been stolen from and then realised that he didn’t care. He didn’t go for heavy combat suits too much - with this lighter one he could move and fight much more freely. He had a couple of heavy laser pistols strapped to his legs, grenades clipped to his belt and a heavy combat knife hanging alongside them. He had plenty of ammo and power cells for the pistols in the webbing of his suit. It was all he could carry without overburdening himself.
The hangar was filled with the men and women of the Hidden Hand, and the Navy personnel that had joined them and who now followed Commander Baldwin’s orders. Almost all had volunteered. They stood around the two ships now sitting ready and waiting inside the bay, clad in whatever combat armour they could acquire and clutching whatever weapons they had chosen from the stash supplied courtesy of Chen. The rest – those who couldn’t fight due to age or injury, had been ferried far to the east by the AG flitter.
Steven marched up to Isaacs, Anna, Maria and Commander Baldwin, who were standing together at the foot of the Profit Margin’s boarding ramp.
‘The fleet’s arrived,’ he said simply. ‘It’s time to go.’
‘About fucking time,’ said Isaacs. ‘Let’s get on
with it.’
‘Everyone clear about what they’re doing?’ said Steven. ‘Cal, we go in first in the Profit Margin, launch the AM missile and then strafe any troop concentrations around the Assembly before landing and offloading Baldwin’s guys. Maria, you follow us in, in the Matrimony with the Hidden Hand volunteers. We land in the internal courtyard and bust our way in. I’ll go find Haines. The rest of you plant the device and then we get the fuck out of there as quickly as possible.’
‘Good luck, everyone,’ said Baldwin. ‘Let’s go get our CO.’
‘I liked the bit where he said “get the fuck out of there as quickly as possible”’ said Maria to herself, as she walked towards the ugly form of the Unholy Matrimony, the old freighter having been hastily converted into a gunship. ‘I liked that bit a lot.’
Five ships didn’t make it. Two destroyers, a recon frigate and two tactical missile frigates failed to jump in time or were snatched out of hyperspace as they brushed the edges of the inhibitor fields. Chen was first notified of their absence when they failed to check in after the short jump. As her remaining ships came about in formation, their crews could only watch in dismay as the five vessels, unable to jump, were torn apart by the massed Shaper craft. One by one a distant blossom of fire, merely a pinprick in the distance, marked the demise of each craft and of the hundreds of crew aboard them.
‘Unlucky bastards,’ said McManus grimly and shook his head.
‘We can’t continue to take losses like that,’ said Chen, aghast at the loss of five vessels only minutes into the engagement. ‘Or this thing will be over before we’ve even started.’
‘Admiral, a second enemy fleet of around two hundred craft has broken away from the main group and is headed this way,’ said Singh.
‘They’ve taken the bait,’ said Chen. ‘The more ships we can peel off from the main group, the greater chance Cartwright has of getting through.’
‘And the more chance we have of getting killed. They’re trying to trap us between the two fleets,’ McManus commented.
‘Time until Cartwright’s fleet emerges from hyperspace?’ said Chen.
‘Five minutes, ma’am,’ Singh replied. ‘Enemy craft in the main group have taken up defensive positions relative to his approach vector. The first group of enemy ships that attacked us is coming about. Looks like they’re preparing to jump towards our position.’
‘Helm, how long until we can jump?’ said Chen.
‘Energy reserves are depleted, Admiral,’ said Goldstein. ‘That second jump so quickly after we arrived used up everything including the reserves. It’ll be just over three minutes until we can jump again. The older carriers will take even longer.’
‘Both of those fleets will be here by then,’ said McManus. ‘We’ll be sitting ducks and outnumbered four to one. It’s about time those Nahabe stopped skulking around the system and joined in.’
‘Yes, I know. All ships, this is Chen, every carrier is to launch all fighters and bombers. Clear the flight decks. Have them rendezvous five hundred kilometres above our position, relative. They are to attack enemy ships as they emerge from hyperspace, but leave the Shaper vessels to the warships. Meanwhile, all ships are to tighten their formations. We can’t afford to let Shaper craft in between our ships again, after what happened in the Santiago system.’
‘Circle the wagons, eh? Good idea,’ said McManus.
‘In addition, all ships are to go into full reverse thrust. It will lengthen the time that it takes the enemy to close with us once they have emerged from their jump. It won’t buy us much time, but anything is to our advantage.’
McManus began to relay her orders to the flight deck. Deep in the bowels of the ship, the crews of the Churchill’s squadrons, already suited up, rushed to their waiting and fully armed craft, already in position to be moved onto the vessel’s launch catapults. It was a scene repeated within every other carrier in the group. As the nimble craft started to launch in pairs from the bows of the ship, Singh again noticed something on his instruments.
‘Admiral, some good news: The Order of Void Hunters has de-cloaked and is attacking the first group of ships.’
The comm. crackled. ‘This is The Lord Protector of the Order of Void Hunters. Churchill, we are engaging the Shapers. Death to the enemy!’
Chen called up a view from the ship’s cameras in her HUD. Sure enough, the spherical shapes of the Nahabe craft could be seen sweeping past the first group of enemy ships at great speed, concentrating their fire on particular ships as they rushed past in what looked like a hit-and-run attack. Half a dozen of the mismatched enslaved vessels succumbed to the withering streams of energy and were torn apart in moments, as were three Shaper craft, but it was not without a price. The sheer weight of fire thrown back at the small group of Nahabe craft was overwhelming, collapsing their heavy shielding and tearing chunks of ablative armour from their massive hulls. One vessel succumbed. The Silent Moon was torn apart in a fountain of energy that cracked it open like an egg.
The Shaper vessels reached out with their drive inhibitor fields, seeking to snare the Nahabe craft in their grasp. The Nahabe ships deployed countermeasures, freeing themselves from the trap and jumping away, engaging their stealth systems to hide from view, although the Shapers were still able to detect vague traces of their presence in the vicinity and began to search for their elusive attackers, who by now were preparing for another run.
‘That’s bought us some time,’ said Singh. ‘We only have to face one group for the moment.’
‘They still outnumber us two to one,’ said McManus, keeping his voice low as he spoke to Chen. ‘I’m all in favour of the Nahabe helping out, but what about those cryptic messages they sent about aiding us further? Actual details would have been nice about when they plan to show up.’
‘It’s not their way,’ Chen replied. ‘Besides, perhaps it helps to maintain the element of surprise. What if someone found out and alerted the Shapers?’
‘Well they’d better turn up bloody soon, is all I’m saying.’
‘Enemy ships are now ten thousand kilometres away and closing!’ cried Singh.
‘All ships, prepare to fire!’ ordered Chen. ‘Same drill as before, target the Shaper vessels as a priority. Fighters and bombers, prepare to strike at the other vessels. Get inside their shields and do as much damage as you can! Good luck everyone.’
Just over fifty Shaper destroyers led a force of around one hundred and fifty assorted enslaved vessels of dozens of different types. Again, the Shaper craft were in the vanguard with the less sophisticated vessels trailing behind them. They emerged from hyperspace in perfect synchronisation, a vast wall of ships that was now bearing down on the Commonwealth fleet, half its size. Chen watched them rush closer, saw the numbers next to the targeting icons in her HUD count down. Her fighter and bomber squadrons dove towards the rear of the pack, hundreds of tiny specks descending towards the lumbering vessels, heading towards their vulnerable engines with torpedoes primed and ready to fire. The enemy ships were almost in range, their weapons charged and already targeting the Commonwealth ships. Chen held her breath and then gave the order to her ships to fire everything they had at the approaching enemy.
The concealed hangar doors opened and the Profit Margin taxied out into the sunlight, the Unholy Matrimony exiting behind it. The two craft were now heavily laden with Hidden Hand and Navy personnel and their equipment, plus the anti-matter tipped missile now clipped to the all purpose hard point on the Profit Margin’s belly. Isaacs mentally adjusted for the difference in weight, and then eased the craft into the sky on its AG motors before hitting the main engines and powering the craft into the air. .
‘We need to set that thing to detonate about two hundred kilometres above the city,’ said Steven, leaning over from the co-pilot’s seat. ‘Any lower and the blast will flatten the city and also the EMP effects won’t travel as far.’
‘Sure,’ said Isaacs, entering targeting information into the ship’s weapons
systems. ‘What about us, won’t the Profit Margin take a hit? If it can take down the Shapers...’
‘Launch the weapon from over a thousand kilometres away and we should be okay. Just keep the shields up.’
Isaacs kept the ship low, hugging the treetops to avoid detection with the Unholy Matrimony following closely behind. The jungle rushed by below as he wound the craft between steep-sided, heavily forested hills swathed in strands of morning mist that had yet to burn off with the heat of the day.
‘What if the Shapers spot it and shoot it down?’ said Isaacs.
‘The weapon will still detonate,’ said Steven. ‘As soon as the containment fields inside the weapon are breached the anti-matter will come into contact with matter and annihilate itself. If it’s close enough, it will still do the job.’
‘Good job,’ said Isaacs. ‘We’ve only got one of them ready to fire.’
The Commonwealth ships unleashed their barrage of fire from their spatial distortion cannons, and ships died. The Shaper ships leading the attack again took the worst of it. Chen’s crews were getting better at aiming and firing the new weapons, and all of the shots from the carriers landed on target, ripping apart six enemy destroyers and crippling a seventh. The combined fire from the Commonwealth destroyers took down three more ships and badly damaged two more as the fighter and bomber squadrons now descended upon the rear of the enemy group like a swarm of angry hornets pouncing upon a slow moving herd. The small craft dodged and wove through the barrage of defensive fire that erupted from the aft sections of the enemy vessels and which took down many of their number with weapons both familiar and strange. They ran the gauntlet of criss-crossing beam fire, arcing energies and explosive flak barrages and more. Some fell prey to the enemy defences and spiralled out of control to smash into the enemy vessels, or they exploded in an instant and deposited their pilots into the freezing vacuum.